This book was published in 1918 by Sax Rohmer (real name Arthur Henry Ward). Rohmer was a popular writer of the early twentieth century and was especially known for his Fu-Manchu novels. Several years ago, I started a collection of hardcover Rohmer novels but have only read a few of them. I enquired to an online website devoted to Rohmer what books they would recommend reading and several stated that Brood of the Witch-Queen was a favorite. Since i did not have a copy of this, I decided to read it on-line as a free download.
Well, the book was quite strange about an Englishman named Robert Cairn, and his acquaintance with Antony Ferrera who appears to be in league with the devil or some other occult deity. He is suspected of black magic by both Cairn and his father, Dr. Bruce Cairn. Ferrera was adopted and he is also suspected of his adopted father's death. This puts Antony in line to inherit his father's money but first he must deal with his beautiful cousin, Myra Duquesne, who inherits half the estate. Myra is also a love interest of Robert's. The novel shifts from London to Egypt where Dr. Cairn relates the origin of Antony and his relationship to the Witch-Queen of Egypt. The story then returns to England where both Robert and Myra are in great danger from Antony's sorcery. So can they be saved? Well, as usual with these types of novel, the answer is yes!
I kind of enjoyed this for what it is, an old-fashioned romance of the early 1900's dealing with the occult. The occult and Egyptology were hot items of the time and many authors dealt with them including A. Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, and others. From wikipedia: H.P. Lovecraft compared the novel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, alongside Richard Marsh's The Beetle or Gerald Biss' The Door of the Unreal in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. Les Daniels identified the book as being probably Rohmer's best novel, noting that it lacked the pseudo-scientific explanations usually employed by the author and concluding that "Rohmer's occult lore was never as well employed as in this tale... and he never equalled the claustrophobic chills of the scenes in the bowels of a pyramid." But overall, I would only mildly recommend this. The writing to me was a little flat and old fashioned and the ending was much too abrupt.
Well, the book was quite strange about an Englishman named Robert Cairn, and his acquaintance with Antony Ferrera who appears to be in league with the devil or some other occult deity. He is suspected of black magic by both Cairn and his father, Dr. Bruce Cairn. Ferrera was adopted and he is also suspected of his adopted father's death. This puts Antony in line to inherit his father's money but first he must deal with his beautiful cousin, Myra Duquesne, who inherits half the estate. Myra is also a love interest of Robert's. The novel shifts from London to Egypt where Dr. Cairn relates the origin of Antony and his relationship to the Witch-Queen of Egypt. The story then returns to England where both Robert and Myra are in great danger from Antony's sorcery. So can they be saved? Well, as usual with these types of novel, the answer is yes!
I kind of enjoyed this for what it is, an old-fashioned romance of the early 1900's dealing with the occult. The occult and Egyptology were hot items of the time and many authors dealt with them including A. Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, and others. From wikipedia: H.P. Lovecraft compared the novel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, alongside Richard Marsh's The Beetle or Gerald Biss' The Door of the Unreal in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. Les Daniels identified the book as being probably Rohmer's best novel, noting that it lacked the pseudo-scientific explanations usually employed by the author and concluding that "Rohmer's occult lore was never as well employed as in this tale... and he never equalled the claustrophobic chills of the scenes in the bowels of a pyramid." But overall, I would only mildly recommend this. The writing to me was a little flat and old fashioned and the ending was much too abrupt.
